Thunder look to shock the competition against undefeated South Fremantle

Peel looks set to face its most daunting task in the 2020 Optus WAFL season, as they host top of the table South Fremantle in Round 7 this Saturday at David Grays Arena.

It is a tale of teams with completely opposite form lines, as despite showing promising signs over recent weeks, Peel will go into the match winless, while their opponents South Fremantle remain unbeaten in 2020.

Saturday’s game marks Peel’s final home game of the shortened 2020 WAFL season, with Thunder fans getting their last chance to cheer on their hometown side for the year.

There have been a few forced changes to last weekends side, as Jordan Boullineau (Concussion) James Ewing (Groin) and Brad Holmes (Hamstring) all miss through injury. as Tom Quaife, Rob Schindler-Taylor, Rob Falkstrom, Ray Giudici, Kudzi Motsi and Colts Isiah Winder and David Yaccob are all named on the extended bench.

The game will commence at 2.00pm on Saturday at David Grays Arena. As always, if you cannot make it to watch the action live, the Peel Thunder social media channels will have you covered with the best game day social coverage. Alternatively this weekends fixture will be livestreamed on our Facebook Page thanks to Front Row Screens.

LIMPING TO THE FINISH

In a COVID shortened season, Peel are limping towards the second winless season in their history. You have to go back to Peel’s third season of 1999 for the last time they went through the year without recording a win. Since 1944 that 1999 Peel occurrence has been the only winless season in the WAFL. Interestingly, it was South Fremantle who had the last winless season prior to Peel all the way back in that year of 1944.

DOING THE UNTHINKABLE

In what has been a crazy overall year and a crazy football season, it would seem somewhat apt if Peel were able to shock the competition and produce an upset win on Saturday. Never before this late in a season have a team who has winless and a team who is unbeaten done battle; with the underdog getting the victory. In a season of firsts, this could be another first for Peel and the WAFL.

DUE FOR A FAST START

Peel have kicked just five opening quarter goals in their first six games of 2020. When you consider they kicked three goals in the first term against Claremont, in the remaining five games they have kicked just two first term goals. Like the match against Claremont which was a catalyst, Peel will be desperate for a fast start for the thought of an upset to come into play for both sides.

MAKING THE MOST UP FORWARD

Despite Peel averaging just 42 points a game and South Fremantle averaging 73 points per game, the inside 50 differential is much closer. Peel average 34 inside 50’s per game compared to South Fremantle’s 42. It does suggest that Peel can win enough of the ball and can get enough opportunities to test their opponents, it will come down to having better success on converting those inside 50 entries.

UP FOR THE TACKLE

A feature of the last two Peel performances has been the sides tackle pressure. In a positive omen for that statistic again this week, a number of Peel players have set career highs in this area against South Fremantle. Jackson Merrett averages 7.5 tackles against South Fremantle compared to a career average of 3.1 and kicking machine Michael Randall averages 9 tackles a game versus South Fremantle compared to a career average of 3.1.

UNLIKELY OPPOSITION THREATS

One of the unspoken parts of South Fremantle’s 2020 dominance has been the rise of a range of young locally produced players. The three leading possession winners at South Fremantle are Jake Florenca, Jacob Dragovich and Zac Strom. This trio make up a core of 10-12 players at South Fremantle who have played close to five seasons of senior football together and are producing consistently strong football. On Saturday, Peel will aim to shut this trio down, but can take comfort by promoting the youth of the club as they have done in 2020, success will be sure to follow in the years to come.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR

Peel last faced South Fremantle just over a year ago, in Round 18 of the 2019 WAFL season on August 10^th. On that occasion South Fremantle were too good for the Thunder winning by 40 points at Fremantle Oval. In that match former captain Gerald Ugle kicked three goals from three kicks while current captain Ben Howlett and Keegan Power each had 22 disposals. The last time the two sides played at David Grays Arena, Peel suffered a hearbreaking three point loss to the highly fancied Bulldogs.

OTHER GRADES

It is a big day of action at David Grays Arena with all 4 sides playing on Saturday. The Rogers Cup side will be looking to get back to winning ways to ensure they finish on top of the ladder as they go up against bottom of the table Subiaco from 10am. 

Peel’s WAFLW side slipped to fifth following last week’s loss and face a must win match against the third placed Claremont. A finals spot is essentially on the line, with the winner guaranteed to play finals and the loser dependant on other results.

Meanwhile the Peel Colts will conclude the day as they look to bounce back from a tough loss against Swans last week, when they host South Fremantle in a highly winnable game that will be played under lights at David Grays Arena commencing at 4.30pm. Despite sitting below South Fremantle on the WAFL Colts ladder, Peel do have a superior percentage to their opponents and will like their chances of finishing their 2020 home games with a win.

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